Scraper and cleaner for egg beaters and the like



Sept. 23, 1941. E. B. REID ET AL 2,256,550 SCRAPER AND CLEANER FOR EGGHEATERS AND THE LIKE Filed Aug. 10, 1940 Patented Sept. 23, 1941 SCRAPERAND CLEANER FOR EGG BEATERS AND THE LIKE Elsa B. Reid, Portland, reg.,and Katherine Davies, Cle Elum, Wash.

Application August 10, 1940, Serial No. 352,126

Claims.

This invention relates in general to scrapers and cleaners for cookingimplements and utensils, and, more specifically, to cleaners for foodmixers, such as dover egg heaters and the like.

Egg heaters and similar food mixers are hard to clean in the ordinarywashing due to the clinging of food to their curved blades, and this isparticularly true when such implements are allowed to stand for anylength of time before being washed and thus giving the food materialsopportunity to dry on the blades. In such case it is necessary generallyto scrape the blades in order to remov the particles of food materialfor the purpose of cleaning the heater or mixer. However, on account ofthe curved shape of the blades of the beaters, as well as the closeproximity of the blades to each other, it is impossible to get onesfingers in between the blades for the purpose of scraping theblades.Ordinary knives also are not suitable for performing such scrapingaction, since the blades of knives are more or less rigid and thus aremade to follow the curved contour of the beater blades with somedifficulty, even if the knife is small enough to get between the beaterblades.

Another well-known fact attending the use of egg beaters and similarfood mixers is that a certain amount of the food materials are wastedsince these cling to the blades of the implements after the beating ormixing.

The object of this invention is to provide a cleaner designed primarilyfor scraping the food from. the blades of egg heaters and other foodmixers and to facilitate the work required in removal of such materialfrom the blades.

Another object of this invention is to provide such a cleaner which willbe very simple and inexpensive to manufacture.

These and incidental objects we attain by providing a cleaner with asemi-flexible bifurcated blade so shaped as to be capable of scrapingboth sides of an egg beater blade at the same time, and by otherwiseforming the cleaner in the manner hereinafter briefly described withreference to the accompanying drawing.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is an elevation of our cleaner and scraper;

Figure 2 is a transverse section taken on line 2-2 of Figure 1 but drawnto a larger scale; and

Figure 3 illustrates another form in which our I cleaner and scraper maybe made.

Our scraper and cleaner comprises a handle a made of wood, Bakelite,rubber, or any other may be of any convenient size and shapefbut weprefer to have it of a "shape and size similar to that of a handle of anordinary small kitchen knife, as illustrated in Figure 1.

The blade portion 1), which is set in, or otherwise secured to thehandle a, in any suitable manner, constitutes a flat, curved, bifurcatedblade shaped substantially as shown. This blade may be made entirely ofrubber or of any suitable flexible material having sufficient stiffnessand resiliency, or it may be formed of rubber with an innerreinforcement. We have found it most practical to make the blade with-aninner reinforcement d of light flexible steel, the shape of this innersteel reinforcement or blade being shown by the broken line in Figure 1.This inner reinforcement is enclosed in a suitable coating of rubber,the rubber extending beyond the edges of the inner metal reinforcement,preferably for a distance of approximately one-eighth of an inch ormore, and thus providing a resilient thin rubber edge 0 extendingentirely around the blade. g

The thin inner flexible metal reinforcement d is formed with two prongsd and 11 one of which, d is longer than the other.v W have found itpractical to have these prongs differently-shaped with the longer onepreferably narrower than the other, for a reason which will be explainedlater. The slot e between these prongs is extended inwardly asubstantial distance towards the handle, and this slot in the flexiblemetal reinforcement d is made sufficiently wid so that the margin oredging c of the rubber covering will extend along both sides of theslot. The adjacent marginal edges of the rubber are made to touch eachother along the center line 7. Thus, when the blade of an egg beater isinserted in the slot, both sides of the blade will be scraped at th sametime.

Sections of the blades of the egg heater or mixer, which are morediflicult of access, may be reached by the comparatively narrow tip ofthe elongated prong of the scraper. It is for this reason that one prongof the scraper or cleaner is made longer than the other and is formedwith a relatively narrow tip so that it may easily reach into otherwiseinaccessible parts for the removal of collected food material. It willbe found that the blades of the average beater or mixer can be scrap-edclean very quickly and with but very few strokes of the bifurcatedscraper. By holding the beater over the food mixing bowl, during suchscraping, the foodv material removed from suitable material orcomposition. The handle the beater blades will drop back into the bowlclaims.

2 F 7 f I 2,256,650

and thus will prevent any waste of such food materials.

Finally, when the food which has been beaten or mixed is to be pouredfrom the mixing bowl,

the scraper may be used also for scraping the inside of the bowl. Forthis purpose the edges 9 and h are curved so as to correspond to usualcurvatures of ordinary mixing bowls of different sizes. Thisrubber-edged scraper will Work much more quickly and efficiently than anordinary spoon or kitchen knife for scraping the food from the inside ofthe mixing bowl.

While we have shown our scraper in Figures 1 and'2, as made with aninside metal reinforcement for the blade, it is also possible to makeblade of flexible rubber and an integral handle 1 of non-flexiblerubben' Such construction. is illustrated in Figure 3.

s is formed preferably of non-flexible rubber or similar material, andthe thinner, semi-flexible In this figure the handle blade'i ismade.integral with thehandle. In this modified construction we believe it'preferable to have the blade somewhat thicker than the'blade in theconstruction shown in Figure 1, to prevent the bladefrom becoming too'fie'xible or weak. When the blade is made thicker, the edges should bereduced in thickness or beveled, inv order to provide the thinflexiblejscraping edges which we have found to be so desirable inscraping thebeater blades and removing food.

particles quickly and easily from beater and bowl.

material with an inner reinforcement of metal,

and a handle for said blade v 2. A scraper and cleaner of the characterdescribed comprising, a bifurcated blade having two projections with along narrow slot therebetween,

,15 the handle and blade from solid rubber, with the Our scraper in thisform could also be made, if

desired; with reinforcement in'handle and blade.-

Various modifications might be made in the 1 construction ofourscraperand cleaner Without, 3 departingfromthe "principle of ourinvention. Changescould also be made in the curvature of i the outsideedges of the scraper blade, although 1 we have found thata slightcurvature, substan-M tially as illustrated, is' very suitablefor'allpractical' purposes. It is essentialthat th'ebladebe' formed witha substantial slot, with flexible" 3 marginal walls, comingapproximately together along the slot, in order to provide satisfactory1 scraping of both sides of the beater blades at'the same time, andwith'a sufficiently vwideentrance 1 into such aperture or slot tofacilitat'e the enj teling of the beater or mixer blade therein.

Otherwise it isno't our'inten'tion t'o'limit' our in vention except asset forth theappended one of said projections being longer than theother, the edges of said projections of said blade 7 being curved, saidblade formed of rubber and having an inner reinforcement of metal, and ahandle of non-flexibl material.

. 3. A scraper and cleanerof the character described comprising; abifurcated blade having two projections with a long narrow slottherebetween, one of said projections being longer and narrower than theother, the edges 'of said blade being curved,'said blade formed of thinmetal" with a coating of flexible material, said coatingextending asubstantial distance beyond the edges of the metal, and a handle ofnon-flexible material for said blade.

4. A scraper and cleaner of the character de scribed comprising, asubstantially flat; semi flexible bifurcated blade having twoprojections With a long narrow slot therebetween, one of said:

projections being longer thanfthe other, said blade formed of rubberwith an inner .reinforce-' mentof metal, and a handleof non-flexiblematerial. i

5. A scraper and cleaner of. thecharacter de-;- scribed comprisingrasemi-flexible, substantially flat, bifurcated bladehaving twoprojecticnswith a long narrow slot therebetweemthe tips of said projections beingnarrowedfand spaced from each other, one of said projections'being-longer and narrower at the top than the other, the outside anclinside edgesof said projections of said blfldfi being flexible andcurved, saidinside edges touching each other for a substantial distance along thecenter line of thefblade, and a handle .for

